Former Alameda Commissioner Charged With Sarcasm, Appearance of
Bias Admits No Wrongdoing

By KENNETH
OFGANG, Staff Writer

The Commission
on Judicial Performance yesterday approved a settlement with a former Alameda
Superior Court commissioner, who agreed never to again seek election or
appointment as a bench officer, or to sit as a judge pro tem or referee,
resolving misconduct charges brought by the CJP two months ago.

The
stipulation between the judicial watchdog and Taylor Culver, a State Bar member
since 1976 and a commissioner since 2005, disclosed that he had resigned from
the court Nov. 30. The commission released a notice of formal proceedings Oct.
17, citing a laundry list of charges against Culver, who had been facing a
special masters’ hearing on Jan. 23.

The
commission had accused Culver, who had presided over traffic court in downtown
Oakland, of routinely speaking to defendants in a sarcastic and undignified
manner, sometimes giving an appearance of a pro-police bias, and taking
misdemeanor pleas without the stipulation required when a subordinate judicial
officer presides.

More Charges

He
was also accused of taking guilty pleas without informing defendants of the
charges, creating an appearance of bias by announcing in court that he would
not hear arguments about the amounts of fines, and refusing to consider
individual circumstances when defendants ask to perform community service
instead of paying fines.

Culver,
72, was featured in a recent East Bay Express feature entitled “The High Cost
of Driving While Poor,” taking a localized look at the issue of unaffordable
traffic fines, highlighted in the U.S. Department of Justice report on
Ferguson, Mo. and recently by Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye and the
Judicial Council of California.

The
commission also alleged that Culver on occasion commented on the race of his
courtroom clerks, and that on the day of an earthquake, he made sexual
references to what he would do if he knew he was about to die in an earthquake.

No Admission

The
stipulation approved by the CJP yesterday contains no admission of wrongdoing,
but it allows the commission to share the results of its investigation with the
State Bar.

Taylor’s
attorney, Arthur J. Harris, told the MetNews that Culver viewed the stipulation
as “a sufficient resolution of the dispute.” He declined to comment on why Culver
left office and settled with the commission just weeks after filing a 60-page
answer in which he denied any misconduct and said he believed the CJP had
“engaged in a campaign of harassment and intimidation for the obvious purpose
of making his professional life so difficult and miserable, through the
constant and ongoing investigations, forcing him to walk away from the job that
he has been appointed to perform.”

Harris
also declined to comment on whether Taylor, who was an architect before his
admission to the State Bar, a prosecutor from 1976 to 1978, and the head of his
own law firm from 1978 until his appointment as commissioner, had any future
professional plans.